30/09/2024 - The French filmmakers’ upcoming movies will be co-produced by the French-German TV network, alongside Yann Gonzalez’s new project and Zou Jing’s debut feature film

Directors Arnaud Desplechin (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa) and Claire Denis (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa)

The third 2024 selection committee organised by Arte France Cinéma (under the aegis of Olivier Père) has committed to co-producing and pre-purchasing four projects.

Standing tall among these are Une affaire, the 14th fiction feature film by Arnaud Desplechin who’s been selected in Cannes’ competition seven times (in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2013, 2019 and more recently in 2022 via Brother and Sister [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), and once in Venice’s competition (in 2004), and whose most recent film to date, Filmlovers! [+see also:
film review
film profile], was treated to a Special Screening in Cannes back in May. The cast stars François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot who will tell a story of impossible love through the career of virtuoso pianist Mathias. Steered by Why Not Productions, the film will be shot in Lyon between October and December this year.

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Arte France Cinéma is also supporting Le Cri des Gardes by Claire Denis (triumphant in Cannes and Berlin in 2022 with Stars at Noon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] at Both Sides of the Blade [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] respectively), whose cast will star American actor  Matt Dillon, fellow American Riley Keough and Ivory Coast-Beninese talent Isaach de Bankolé. Penned by the director alongside Suzanne Lindon and Andrew Litvack, the story is an adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltès’ stage play Combat de nègre et de chiens, which unfolds over the course of one night near a vast building site in sub-Saharan Africa. As project supervisor Horn is welcoming his young partner Léone into the hut he shares with young and impetuous engineer Cal, a black man called Alboury appears outside the railings surrounding their quarters. Inflexible, hovering like a ghost in the darkness, he is determined to stay there until they return the body of his brother to him, who was killed on the site… Production is entrusted to Curiosa Films and Vixens together with Senegal’s Astou Production, while Goodfellas are heading up international sales. Shooting will take place in January and February in Senegal.

Another movie selected for assistance by Arte France Cinéma is J’oublierai ton nom, Yann Gonzalez’s 3rd feature film after two titles unveiled in Cannes (You and the Night [+see also:
trailer
film profile] screened in Critics’ Week 2013 and Knife + Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Maury
interview: Yann Gonzalez
film profile] in 2018’s Official Competition). Penned by the director in collaboration with Caroline Deruas Peano and Cristiano Mangione, the story follows a 50-year-old primary school teacher (set to be played by Vanessa Paradis) living in a small village in the mountains. She’s a teacher by day, but by night she seduces sad men who she never sees again. Her life turns upside down when she falls desperately in love with Terrence, driving her to the outer reaches of a troubling, fantastic world… The movie is produced by Pan Cinéma and will be shot in the spring of 2025.

Last but not least, there’s also a first feature film project gracing Arte France Cinéma’s selection: A Girl Unknown by Chinese director Zou Jing, who won the Next Step Hildegarde Award at this year’s Critics’ Week in Cannes (read our article). The movie will be shot in early 2025 involving Parisian firms Maneki Films and Memoria Films together with China’s Pure Light Films.

For the record, Arte France Cinéma is also throwing its weight behind upcoming works by Joachim Trier, Tarik Saleh, Kaouther Ben Hania, Nadav Lapid, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Mia Hansen-Løve, Bi Gan, Kantemir Balagov, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Hafsia Herzi, Emmanuel Finkiel, Hlynur Pálmason, Justyna Tafel, Diego Céspedes, Momoko Seto, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Laura Samani, Chie Hayakawa, Chabname Zaria, Marine Atlan, Jérémy Comte, Hu Wei, Louise Hémon and the duo Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier.

(Translated from French)